1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inter-object communication technique for realizing linkage between objects movable in a network.
2. Description of Related Art
As object-oriented programming has come into wide use recently, it is required to provide a technique for realizing flexible linkage of objects.
A well-known method for inter-object linkage, as a concrete example, is to utilize a development tool for window-based application software. Using this tool, users can easily develop application software having a graphical user interface (GUI) by making visual-arrangement combinations of such objects as window forms, buttons and list boxes, with a mouse or other device. In the development of application software, it is necessary to design the above mentioned objects so that each of them will interwork through mutual linkage. For this purpose, a technique for realizing flexible linkage of objects efficiently is required as an important part of software development.
Another known method for inter-object linkage, as a concrete example, is to embed server spreadsheet objects created with spreadsheet application software into client document objects created with word processor application software. In this case, it is also required to realize flexible linkage of objects.
For implementing inter-object linkage, there are such conventional techniques as OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) and OpenDoc. With these techniques, as in the example of linkage of document objects and spreadsheet objects mentioned above, an object of a server resource can be embedded into another object of a client.
However, the conventional techniques are disadvantageous in that a server resource embedded in one client cannot be embedded into another client at the same time.
Another disadvantage of the conventional techniques is that a client having another server resource embedded cannot be embedded as a server resource for another client.
A still further disadvantage of the conventional techniques is that information concerning "which server resource is to be embedded into which client" must be specified in source code instructions of a class for generating a client. That is, with the conventional techniques, the relationship between server resources and clients is predetermined statically and cannot be determined dynamically at the time of execution.
In addition, a recent trend toward mobile computing requires realization of inter-object linkage through networking. However, any efficient technique capable of providing consistency in inter-object linkage for mobile computing has not been known heretofore.